After live rock what's next?

[spence0416]

I was wondering if I should start adding food to my tank? I know I have a few small crabs, and some sort of mantis shrimp. Hopefully, I'll find some more hitchhikers, but for now do these guys need anything? Should I also start doing water changes? 10%?

 

[Bearfan]

How long have you had the rock in there? Who did you get the rock from? What are the following readings: PH, Alk, SG, NO2, NO3, NH4?

 

[spence0416]

First of all its a 10 gal nano. I added a 5# piece of live rock 3 days ago that I got from my LFS (nothing more than corraline algae on it). Today I added 10# from liverocks.com. Now the readings are

PH 8.2
Ammonia 0.5
Nitrite 2.0
Nitrate 0.75
SG 1.022
Have not tested for anything esle as I was waiting for the cycle to end before buying the other test kits.

I figure I was about 1/2 way through the cycle, but with the new rock I'll probably get another Ammonia spike.

Also I got 2 ID questions

1. About 5 hitchhikers almost look like small hermit crabs but have a tall pointed shell and are a purple color similar to corraline algae

2. Also a puple color but almost seem as if the live rock opens and a little arm tries to grab at the water column